PENDULUM

The choreographer Lucy Guerin collaborates with the percussionist Matthias Schack-Arnott to activate 39 golden pendulums that soar through the air in twirling, visceral sweeps of sound and light, to which the performers respond with a hypnotic dance with gravity.  

Lucy Guerin is celebrating her 20 years in the industry with a bang. From New York – the dance hotspot where she took her first steps in ballet before branching out – to Australia – her native land of which she’s extremely proud – the choreographer deploys an impressive talent arc. We are reminded of Motion Picture as a danced film noir and of her collaboration with The Lyon Opera Ballet. Pendulum, created with the musician-percussionist Matthias Schack-Arnott, is as much a performance installation as a live show. The brilliantly committed dancers move in a horizon made up of sonorous and luminous “pendulums” that they manipulate in constant dialogue. Gradually, Pendulum revs up, bodily movements seem to be embedded in a continuum. Initially conceived for a gallery space, this piece features Lucy Guerin’s iconic gestural writing between repetition and trance. Pendulum is an unexpected choreographic enchantment.  

Text: © Philippe Noisette

Photo: © Sarah Walker